Three Ways to Boost your Longevity (and Live Forever)

By Elizabeth Marglin

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In How to Live Forever, Mark Wexler’s surprisingly existential take on the breadth and depth of life featured on GaiamTV.com, the oddball and the philosopher merge. The catalyst for Wexler making the film was a double whammy: his mother’s death and the arrival of his AARP card in the mail. With the inevitability of the “uncool trappings of old age” upon him, Wexler sets out to put aging under a new aegis.

Interspersed with more serious explorations of what makes life meaningful are entertaining riffs on cryopreservation (preserving a brain for eternity is a relative bargain at a mere $80,000, versus the whole body package that clocks in at $170,000.) The engaging picture of humanity at its most basic—and most transcendental—provides riveting fare, ranging from porn as a way to fending off old age, giving way to more Shakespearean ideas (think King Lear) about staying within the dignity of our allotted lifespan.

Wexler, with deadpan shrewdness, doesn’t distinguish between the profound or the profane, but instead lets us decide for ourselves. He opens up longevity to a lively debate on health, competency, spirituality and satisfaction. Is it self-serving to want to live longer, or does it stem from an altruistic motivation to serve others?